The K-2L Incident
by KuriousKyle
Summary: This story is an alternative POV account of the K-2L disaster. Flint Bowman is a recruit to an elite Galactic Federation squad tasked with defending the mining colony from the shadows.
1. Chapter 1

Team Zero

The calendar said "2058". As Flint Bowman had never actually been to Earth, he hadn't known whether that referred to the Cosmic Calendar or the Earth one. In truth, they may or may not have been the same thing. As his father had been stationed in the Galactic Federation for his whole life, Flint had only lived on Daiban with all the other trainees he knew. Daiban was the official "Capital of the Milky Way" as far as the Federation was concerned. It's been over 50 years since the Federation had established this system as Earth had come into contact with more and more races throughout the galaxy.

Flint had an aptitude for marksmanship and "quick thinking", as his official transcript had pointed out. That was probably why they stationed him here on K-2L of all places. Established as an official Earth Colony, K-2L was known to be rich in Afloraltite: a crystal compound that can be liquidized and used to power the ignition modules on Galactic Federation ships. This became evident when he was greeted at the docking bay.

"Flint Bowman..." A decorated Federation Marine stood near the central ramp near the main platform. As soon as Flint walked up to him, the Marine walked with him. Flint was aware of protocol, and that the marines didn't like standing around anymore than they had to. "I'm sorry we can't give you a tour of the place before you meet your new team."

This being his first time off planet, Flint was not told anything as he was flown here. Not that he thought that anybody was keeping anything from him. In all honesty, the nature of Flint's purpose on the mining colony was seemingly classified to everybody, including him. "I'm sure I'll get to know the place soon enough."

The ride to HQ was more silent than the entirety of the interplanetary flight that had taken place over the past few days. Flint had been given a specially decorated suit similar to that of standard Federation army personnel, except this one had a special insignia on the left shoulder and had slightly more armor around the chest and back. His helmet had a "00" imprinted on the top above the visor. "You're team is officially off the grid," the marine had told him. That seemed to be all he knew.

Outside the HQ, was a fully operational outpost. To the left, were Federation troopers loading supplies onto a cargo transport. On the right, a platoon of army recruits were firing weapons at test-dummies towards the forest.

As instructed, Flint headed into the HQ building. Above him, several Stiletto-Class Fighters flew past him, presumably towards the main mining center. Flint walked through the main corridor before being led into a room with four other soldiers, all wearing slightly different variations of the armor he had just been given. Two were sitting at a computer terminal, listening to a message. One was sitting in a corner bickering with another over something to do with their guns.

"I don't know," the one sitting down said in a fairly high pitched voice. "If the commander wants to authorize use of specific components of utilities we already have..."

"Wait." The trooper standing next to him cut him off in a much deeper voice. His face was turned towards Flint with a slight smirk. "Hey commander." He turned towards the computer. "The new guy's here."

 _Great,_ flint thought to himself. If only he had been told before hand. The hazing was the worst part of the academy on Daiban. _So it's THAT kind of team..._

The trooper standing over the left side of the computer turned around. This one was a woman. "Oh joy," she slowly walked towards him, smiling. "Welcome to the team, Flint."

"We're on a first-name basis," the deep voiced one called out from behind. "We won't require anything else, nor will we ask." He stood next to Flint. His build was enormous, with arms and legs big enough to terraform an entire colony.

"That's Seth, the team muscle," The woman pointed towards the brute. "He may act tough, but deep down he's like a giant stuffed animal."

As he quickly lowered his head, the one sitting in the corner laughed in a slight whimper.

"THAT one," she pointed to him. "is Marx, our technicians expert."

"Hello," Marx let out in his high pitched voice.

"You can call me Audry," she said as she leaned back. "And this..." she pointed towards the one still listening to the computer. "is..."

"Vince." He cut her off. "I'll be your commanding officer here on K-2L." He placed his hand on Flint's shoulder. "I see you've met the rest of the team, so I'll cut through the bullshit." He walked towards the door and pulled a lever on the control panel, shutting it. "As far as you may know, this team of ours doesn't officially exist. We're meant to make sure the mining operation goes by without a hitch for of the big assembly coming up."

"So essentially, we're guarding," Marx said from the back of the room. That was a condescending way of looking at it, but it made sense.

"Actually," Vince continued. "Although Dr. Aran won't admit it, the higher-ups insist that having an elite team here on K-2L will deter any sort of... unwanted guests."

"Commander." Seth walked up to Vince and Flint. "I've just received the green light. We should gear up now."

"Alright," Vince turned to Flint. "I'll give you the briefing on the way."

Flint's head was swimming with information that was struggling to fit together. "Wait," he called out to Vince. "Is that it then?"

Vince turned his head to the team who was already geared up, then back to Flint. "Welcome to Team Zero."


	2. Chapter 2

It's been a Long Trip, I Know

The sound of the wind protruding from the Anhur-class gunship gave Flint a moment to relay what had happened. Back on Daiban, with almost no warning at all, he was told to be stationed off-planet on a mining colony located near the FS-176 system. His file had been heavily modified to include very specific attributes, yet he didn't know why. On top of that, the team he was assigned to supposedly "didn't exist." And now, they were on their way to some mission that he, once again, didn't know anything about.

"So..." Marx was the first one to break the ice. "Am I the only one curious about what it is we're actually doing out here?"

Thank god. Flint was slightly pleased to know that he wasn't the only one out of the loop. If only for a moment, it alleviated the tension a tad.

Commander Vince stood up. "Seth, you wanna do the honors?"

In the center of the gunship, were mounted chairs for each soldier. Seth was the only one sitting down. After looking back at the commander with a jarring look of helplessness, he stood his towering mass up. "Alright, ladies... listen up."

"Speak for yourself. You're the one strapped down in his safety belt." Audry was laughing in the corner.

He paid her no mind. Instead, Seth stood tall in the center. "Nine hours ago, Commander Jason Shepherd of Alpha Team supposedly picked up traces of an unidentified vessel on his scanner. When they went to investigate..."

"Let me guess," Marx blurted out. "They went missing?"

"No." Seth continued. "Actually, they came back fine. The problem, is their mission report."

Back at the academy, it had been hammered down that each detail of every mission be recorded in the Logbook. In extreme circumstances, failure to do so could result in an investigation warranted by the GF chain of command. Is that what we're doing now?

"And exactly what did they record?" Flint leaned back towards the main doors.

"A scanner malfunction," Seth barked. "They spend all of those resources sending out an elite squad for it to be a scanner malfunction."

Flint felt a hint of confusion piling up in his stomach. "Sometimes, it is what it is."

"Except it isn't." Vince broke his silence from behind and walked over to Seth. "We picked up the anomaly, too. Right before you showed up, Audry and I confirmed with the G.F.S _Loannina_ that we could go forward with the investigation. Seth was the one who received the final word."

"So, the short version" Audry walked up. "is that we are meant to find out why Alpha Team lied on their mission report."

"What about the blip on the scanner?" Marx looked over to Seth. "You think it's the Space Pirates?"

Audry looked over to Commander Vince with a hint of worry. "It can't be... They normally stick to small raiding parties on cargo ships."

Flint had heard a lot about the Space Pirates in training. They, along with the Kriken Empire were two of the major threats against the Galactic Federation since their formation. Space Pirates were the leading cause of the formation of the Galactic Federation Police. They are notorious for being in and out of their targets, leaving little survivors. However, if it WAS the Space Pirates, they would have made themselves known by now.


End file.
